Darkness of Emotion

Why Pick the Best Flowers?

We soon discovered what was stopping Wendy from flying us any further. It was the Canadian border. And the fact that some of Synkinisi's minions were standing there waiting for us to make our first move. When we did not, Scarlet did the smart thing. Delay. "So.... you like to have humans for lunch? 'Cuz I love them with their blood dripping. I think that you should try the next batch of humans that come along, be-" Then, Carla just HAD to interrupt. "Yes. Take the others, for we are seven-eighths dragon. Now just leave. By-" The moment these minions heard dragon, they attacked. And by attacked I mean that it seemed like they were going for our souls, which I'm sure they were. It seemed to me that Wendy was just drained to the bones, for she was sleeping under the nearest tree. Carla, Rain, and Scarlet were preparing a spell, which meant that it was up to me to fight the monsters until they were ready. Okay......... So now we have a problem. I could not do anything with magic, or physical fights, or anything of that sort. I did the thing anyone would; I jumped onto the minion's back yelling, " Yee-Haw, Horsey!" The trio had then finished their spell and were trying to direct it at my ride. Carla aimed it at the head of the minion. She shot and made it. But I fell in the process. I fell so hard that I could tell that my head almost snapped in two. As I sat up rubbing my head, Rain and Scarlet came running toward me. "Skyler.... Must look at-" Rain fell down, evidently out of breath. "Skyler... Please, take a look at Carla. Or rather," she turned around. " Go help Wendy."

As I ran to Wendy's side, a horrible thought occurred to me that was too painful to consider. "Skyler, it's Carla. She's not breathing. What is this? I did not feel her death either."

"Wendy, she is stuck like Schrodinger's cat. In between life and death," I said.

"Oh. I see." Wendy took out a piece of chalk and began chanting. "Uh, you might want to back off for this part. And cover your and that Rain's eyes." Suddenly, a bright light appeared, with a panting Wendy. "Not..... Working.... Something.... Off.... Send that son of Telos here." I pushed Rain next to Wendy and dusted my hands. The two of them seemed to be working on a team. About five minutes later, the two of them appeared next to us. "I taught him some basic stuff. Even though I was working with him, we were unable to save her. I'm sorry."

"I'M SORRY. I'M SORRY DOES NOT CUT IT, YA SEE. WE WERE CLOSE AT ONE POINT YOU SEE. ALL BEFORE THE TWO OF YOU DISAPPEARED THAT DAY. WE WERE A FAMILY. YOU DISAPPEARED AND LEFT US BROKEN. BROKEN FOR YEARS. I WANTED TO MAKE UP WITH HER FOR ALL THAT WE DID. SHE SAID THAT SHE WOULD APOLOGIZE TO ME AFTER SHE GOT THIS ALL SORTED OUT. BUT NOW? SHE TRIED TO SAVE US ALL AND COULD NOT RECOVER QUICKLY ENOUGH SO YOU TRY TO SAVE HER. AND NOW? SHE IS GONE. GONE. I'M ALL ALONE NOW, FAMILY-IS-BLOOD-WISE. ALONE. PLEASE. THIS IS SO PATHETIC," Scarlet screamed. I was starting to feel bad on Carla's sudden death when Wendy spoke up. "Scarlet, stop. She may have...... passed away.... but I am holding her soul in my hands." Scarlet seemed to be momentarily shocked, but she quickly covered it up with a smirk of cold amusement. "Well, hand it to me."

"No. It requires special training to hold a soul without letting it slip to Telos. It would drive me crazy if I were not able to talk with her, which is what I will be starting tonight."

"Oh. So can I at least see her?" Scarlet was tearing up again, while Rain and I were standing awkwardly next to each other, arms touching. His face was right there. I mean right next to me. If I just turned my head like so............ Just as I was fantasizing, Wendy spoke,"We should set up camp for tonight in those woods over there. I need to get ready for the first shift. Hopefully we will not have any attacks tonight because none of us are in good shape."

As we set up camp, Scarlet started talking to me. "Why did that stupid Carla have to give those idiots her life? Even I could have done that."

"No. No you couldn't have." Wendy said. "In our world, everything has a process. And the process for the kind of sacrifice that Carla performed was unstoppable and very complicated. It took us several years to master it. Of course, we were the only ones that knew the technique. Carla was better at it. Of course, I never thought she would use it on herself."

"Oh," was Scarlet's brave response.

By now our eyelids were getting heavy and Rain was done cooking and setting up camp. As we ate, the silence that draped over us was unbearable. It seemed to me that everyone knew the result of this quest. Nothing. All results would be determined by how well we were trained. That's it.

After dinner, Scarlet whispered to me, "Why is it that the best flowers are always picked?

My sleep was restless as well. I'm sure that Wendy would be waking us up tomorrow morning talking like Effie Trinket. "Wake up. Big, big day ahead."

Saying that the night was awkward would be an understatement. Rain and I were in the same tent, which I was fine with. Both of us were drained out by the day's events and had too much on our mind. So we just slept. But, somehow, an interesting thing happened. I would not say that is was bad, but it was definitely NOT welcome. Here is what happened. I somehow ended up sleeping while hugging Rain. And he was hugging me too. So much for sleeping in peace. I have to admit, though. I felt safer with his arms around me. And Wendy did wake us up like Effie Trinket, but ended up finding not what she expected. 

It went like so, "Wake up. Big big- uhm.. I'll just wait outside," and she coughed loud enough to wake us up and blush madly. Breakfast was no better. Scarlet seemed to be out of her mind and was very ecstatic about the sunny morning. I sighed. Oh well. At least we would start our training today. As if on cue Wendy said, "Okay, get ready! We must start now."

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